Of Friendship and Family
by jadoremwpp
Summary: So would you if your fool of a mother had called you Nymphadora' Tonks. We glimpse a hint of reason behind this horrid name choice late at night in the arms of a friend. AndromedaTed.


**Disclaimer: If you are really angry about this, boy, you need a life. I'm just playing in a sandbox.**

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_I'd swim across lake Michigan  
I'd sell my shoes  
I'd give my body to be back again  
In the rest of the room  
To be alone with you  
_

_To Be Alone With You - _Sufjan Stevens

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"_Dora!"_ calls a hushed voice, "_Dora, are you awake? It's Andy." _

A pillow forcefully finds its way towards the speaker's face. "Mmmmph, g'way," is the apathetic response from the lump covered in blue layers.

"_Dora, it's about Ted. They know,_" continues the whispering, "C_issy told them._"

The worry lines are evident in the young girl's face as she gently shakes her cohort. Her hands, trembling slightly, start to pull back covers.

"_Dora, I'm scared_." This is said softly, so softly that it is almost inaudible. Three words, full of fear and anxiety, three words yearning for help. "Oh, get up. No one is this slothful."

Andy, as she calls herself, straightens, years of scolding about her drooping, teenage posture impossible to ignore. Her tone becomes firm and calculated, almost an order. The moment of weakness has passed. After all, a Black is never vulnerable, why that would be below them.

"Fine, Dora. If you're too indolent, I'll go back to the snake's den. May the bed bugs smite thee with their terrible teeth." She carefully, gracefully, steps out of the four-poster and dashes out of the room, her slippers lightly treading soundlessly, her chin held high.

There is a scurry behind her as she reaches the common-room exit.

"Andy! Wait!"

She turns. "Managed to tear yourself from your lovely dreams, have you? Well aren't I special, I practically feel blessed."

"Ugg, you know I'm not a morning person, Andy," says Dora grumpily, "Boy, had this better be worth it."

"Lucky for you it's not yet morning. I wouldn't have come if I'd known you'd be so obliging. Shall we stay here or make our way to a more private venue?"

Dora yawns and rubs her sleepy eyes, shrugging. "How'd you even get in here?" Andy's face lights up, a devious smile playing on her lips. "Oh, I don't want to know, do I? _Slytherins._ Better leave, if someone finds you here they'll tattle."

Andy pirouettes to face the exit and makes her way out. Dora sighs, watching her friend's back and, typically, follows.

They are out and heading down a dark and shadowed corridor. "_Ravenclaws, _no sense of respect. Why, we'd never tell on one of our own in Slytherin, it's just not done." She slides into an empty classroom and makes her way towards a statue at the rear, dodging misplaced chairs elegantly.

"How on earth do you move like that? Do they inject Slytherins with some kind of snake poison the day they're sorted? Although, I think it's more of a Black thing. Your family are such freaks, you know. So what are we doing anyway? You said something about Ted, right? You didn't have _another_ fight, did you? Seriously, Andy, he likes you! Maybe loves you but it's kinda hard to tell with boys… but he does like you awfully and you need to stop scaring him with stories of Bellatrix maiming puppies and the like. He doesn't care about you're bloody fam-"

Andy halts at the statue and taps it with her wand, muttering something in Latin. Dora stumbles into her. A creak echoes throughout the room and the statue slides across the floor, revealing a silver room lined with lounges. "We're trying to be stealthy here, Dora. Do you want Filch to catch us again? Plus, Bella never maimed puppies, that was Lestrange. Anyway, I found this room yesterday, with Ted. And don't give me that look, we didn't use it for anything dirty. Yet."

Dora flops down onto a purple couch, tawny hair obscuring her face until she brushes it aside. "Well, what's the goss?"

"Oh, Dora, you'll never believe it. It's Cissy, she saw Ted," says Andromeda, her voice taking on a more high-pitched tone than usual.

"Well, she has seen him before, you know. It's not a particularly big school."

"Yes, but he was kissing me. Back against the wall, actually, but that's not the point. So she knows. She knows about us and she's owled mother and there'll be yelling and fighting and Ted'll leave me because he'll realise I'm an inbred nutcase like the rest of my family and I'm sure to be disowned and I don't know what to do because where will I even live?" Dora looks nervous, Andy doesn't use run-on sentences, it simply wasn't Black. She moves closer to her friend and puts her arms around her.

"It won't be that bad, Andy, you're over-reacting. You can cover it, you're the queen of cover ups. And if worse comes to worse, I'm moving into Hogsmeade next summer and you can come share." She smoothes the chestnut hair, watching a silent tear trickle down the refined cheekbones. "Ted'll understand, he always understands."

For the first time in her life, Andromeda Black feels small. This was worse than the terror of her first year at Hogwarts on her first day. First year all she had to do was drop her name and she had friends and respect. She was used to power, used to being in control. Bella was always there to scare off anybody who even glared in her direction, not that they would. She'd always felt secure, with money and a definite future. But now Ted had come and he was tearing down her walls like they were flimsy paper. "I don't want to lose my life, Dora," she says, her voice wavering, "I don't want to lose my sisters."

"You could leave him…" Dora suggests hesitantly, "If it's for the best…"

"I can't. Sometimes, when I'm with Bella and Cissa and we're talking like old times, I think perhaps it's best to just leave him. Move on. Marry a rich, young and handsome Slytherin, like I'm meant to. But gosh, Dora. When I'm with him it's like that world never existed. He kisses me and it might as well be dead for all I care." She looks into the distance at nothing in particular, thinking of her lover, letting his boyish face play with her dreams and drain her troubles.

"You're head over heels in love, Andromeda Black. And with a muggleborn," Dora states, "And here I am still fantasising about Sirius, it seems so juvenile."

This draws a slight smile from her friend. "I know, Dora, I know. And eww. Blood relative, remember?"

"So, does this mean you have to choose? Family or Ted?" questions Dora. Andy sits up, brown eyes pensive.

"It's just, and I know this sounds stupid because I'm young, but I almost feel like Ted is already my family. I don't know how I'd live without him. He just, well, he takes my breath away. And I can't understand Bella and Cissy like I used to. They seem so amoral, all of them. He's changed my world, Dora."

Dora looks straight into her eyes, "If you ask me, it sounds like you've already made your choice, Andy. I don't know if it's the right one," Andy looks a little scandalised, "but you don't want to live a life of regrets and what-ifs, do you? Just… grab it and go." Dora's blue eyes are questioning and insecure, she's not used to comforting or advising. Andy reaches over hesitantly, approval in her eyes as she places a reassuring hand on her friend's back.

"Plus it'd be mega-weird if I married my sister's husband's brother. We're meant to be set up, you know?" She giggles slightly, some vestiges of colour returning to her pale face.

"He _is _drop dead gorgeous, though. Maybe you should reconsider," jokes Dora, hugging her companion again, happy because the snakes haven't trapped her like she's always feared.

"But Ted is my rock. Gosh, I'm full of cliches tonight, sorry Dora, you really shouldn't have to listen to this whining." Andy feels her hair and realises it is completely out of place. She quickly uses her wand to tame stray hairs, looking more and more like herself and less like a stray kitten that lost its way.

Dora's most charming smile comes out. "Do I have to explain friends to you again, dear? I thought you were quitting Slytherin. Slytherins can't think dirty thoughts about muggleborns, you know. I'm always here for you, you know that. Even if you just want to whine."

"You're amazing. Tell you what, I'll buy you a present or something, to say thank you."

Dora looks indignant, "Remember Section III, Part IV, Clause IX of the _What a Friend Means to Everyone Outside Slytherin_ _Handbook_? We don't need to buy friends, they love us no matter what. Just, name your first child after me or something."

Andromeda laughs, "There is no way in hell I would curse a child with the name Nymphadora. No matter how much I love you."

"Well fine then. No more waking me up at indecent hours so you can spurt lover's prose at me."

They reach a fork. One way leads to Ravenclaw, the other Slytherin. The girls stop. "You can come and sleep with me if you'd like," offers Dora sincerely.

"I have to face them sometime." Apprehension crosses Dora's face. "Don't worry, they can't hurt me while we're in school, I'll be fine."

Andy speeds off; long dark hair waving goodbye to her friend as she approaches her lost future and the consequences of love.

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_Umm, I kinda might've accidently deleted this... Whoops. But still, reviews are needed!!! like blood to a deathly pale fiend. Yes, I have been watching too much Buffy. Evil forces of darkness that are evil and will result in an annually end-of-the-world-again fight will NOT lure you into their dark clutches if you review. Does this look like a sentence that could lie to you? Ah ha, I didn't think so. _


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